[Scribus] Re: Test and Hello ...

[Bryan J. Smith]

Quoting Steve Herrick <steveh at greens.org>:
> Three cheers for anyone willing to provide documentation for an OSS
> project!    

Agreed, equally important as code is [user] documentation.

> Apart from a simple and unified installer,

Which is a falicy.

You either get:
  A.  Simple, library hell systems (Windows), or
  B.  Complex, dependency hell systems (Linux)

While SOHO users might prefer A, as a 25+ system administrator, I'll take B
anyday.  Especially since Apt solves most of the dependency hell issues for
both, as long as you know how to wield it.  Most SOHO users don't bother to learn.

As far as "unified," there are basically 2 standards:  Deb and RPM.

I liken the term "unified" to the "communism as only choice" and "standards" to
the "commons in a free market system" which results out of chaos theory common
explained with sigma statistics.  Simply put, even with infinite choice, most
Americans have "standardized" on 2-3 political parties.  Same deal with the UNIX
world.

> the biggest thing missing from Linux is documentation.

To clarify, [user] documentation.  Otherwise Linux is a basket of
over-documentation from a technical standpoint.  Samba is one fine example
combined with reverse engineeering.

> I look forward to this being done. This is the only obstacle to my using
> Scribus full-time.

That's the downside of chaos/sigma, it takes time.

But benefit is that at least you have a "near-permanent standard" ("commons in
captialism" UNIX) that lasts 10+ years instead of a "unified standard that
radically changes every 3-5 years" ("communism as only choice" Windows).

> I think they may have a point. If I can get the GIMP to replace
> Photoshop,

It's there unless you need some patented approaches.

> Zope to replace GoLive,

There are endless ones there.

> Sweep to replace CoolEdit Pro (not an Adobe product, but you get the point),

???

> why wouldn't I expect that a free application would    
> eventually come along to replace InDesign?

Because 99% of Windows users don't know what a Desktop Publishing app is.  If
you're lucky, they'll say something like "oh, you mean Microsoft Publisher"?
   @-pppppppp

> And it has. I think open-source is well on the way to de-commidifying
> software.

Open Source easily replaces commodity, proprietary software that is
non-innovative.  But know the DTP world is half-way innovative.

> I've always liked Macs and Adobe, but I'll jump at the opportunity to get
> equally-good software for free.

Free is relative and can be dangerous.  But that's another discussion.

-- 
Bryan J. Smith       (suffix-free title for your protection)
mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org               http://www.thebs.org
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